Advocate helps keep N.J. gov’t open to the public

Slowly but surely, John Paff is making New Jersey government more open and accessible to the public. Paff has spent the past couple of years peeking into the workings of local government agencies, which he often chooses at random, to make sure things are on the up and up when it comes to open public meetings laws and public records.

Paff, who does this as the volunteer chairman of the Central Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Task Force, often finds exactly what he expects: that governing bodies, intentionally or not, are violating state laws in some way or another. In Milltown, for example, a recent stop at borough hall to browse closed-session minutes revealed that the Borough Council had discussed topics in closed session that should have been primarily hashed out in public. In Monroe, Paff took issue with the vagueness of the Board of Education’s wording for going into closed session at the end of each meeting.

“I find that the vast majority of towns are out of compliance, at least as I define it, some worse than others,” Paff told Greater Media Newspapers. Such a statement is telling of the need for enforcement of state laws, and unfortunately Paff seems to be in something of a law enforcement field all his own.

What Paff cannot predict is how a town will respond to him. He tells communities of their alleged violations in a letter with an explanation of the law in question, and he explains why a certain matter should have been handled differently. Some towns, as in Milltown’s case, take his position as constructive. Others, who choose to ignore his correspondence, have found themselves in court defending against a lawsuit. As far as the outcome, Paff has won favorable settlements in many of his lawsuits, outright victories in others. He did lose one of two lawsuits in Perth Amboy.

Paff has also filed numerous record denial complaints with the state Government Records Council, and said he has won or settled favorably in 90 percent of those.

As Paff works his way around the state, and as his reputation becomes known, one can almost see local government in New Jersey slowly moving toward greater transparency. And in a day and age when trust in public officials is hard to come by, it is imperative that we have the most open government possible under the law.

New Jersey needs people like John Paff, watchdogs who are there to help keep an eye on those making decisions that affect our tax dollars. Paff doesn’t take no for an answer in his efforts to bring about change, and for that we should all be grateful.